Asset providers, e.g., providers of advertisements, public service announcements and other content, put considerable effort into the design of campaigns. Such campaigns are defined in relation to, among other things, where and how the asset will be delivered (e.g., what media modalities, in connection with what programming/other assets, etc.), when the asset will be delivered (e.g., during what time frame, at what time-of-day, how frequently, how many total times) and to whom (e.g., defined in relation to demographic segments, income, purchasing behavior, lifestyles, interests, etc.). Over many years, these campaigns have been analyzed to optimize campaign effectiveness and many professionals have devoted their careers to understanding the art and science of campaign design.
For example, the process of developing a television advertising campaign may begin by conducting extensive surveys and market studies to define a target audience for a product or service to be advertised. An advertising agency may be retained to develop an advertisement or set of advertisements intended to produce the desired response from the targeted audience. The advertisements may be tested on focus groups or test markets and results analyzed. Additional studies and expertise may be applied to determine how many times the advertisement needs to be presented to the target audience for the message to be effectively conveyed, how many times would result in diminishing returns or be counterproductive, how should a set of related advertisements be sequenced, what channels/programming yield useful associations or should be avoided, etc.
Even after goals concerning delivery of impressions have been defined, considerable effort is needed to determine how to execute the campaign. Conventionally, in the case of television advertising, this has involved contracting to purchase “spots” in particular programming (an advertising break in a program may have multiple spots for ad placement) or otherwise contract for delivery of some defined level of dissemination. In this regard, the purchaser may consider ratings information, other viewing statistics and research results, as well as costs (e.g., cost per thousand viewers or CPM), campaign budget and subjective considerations that inform the art of campaign design. The campaign may be modified during execution based on feedback, changed goals or the like.
This considerable knowledge base is being impacted by developments in the field that present evolving challenges and opportunities. Among the more significant developments in this regard are the emergence of addressable advertising and the evolution of media devices and consumption patterns.
Addressable advertising relates to the ability to customize, at least to some extent, the content stream delivered to individual network users, even in connection with broadcast programming. For example, it is becoming increasingly common for different viewers watching the same broadcast programming on the same channel in real-time to receive different advertisements. The advertisements may be selected based on determined or estimated characteristics of the viewer, such as demographic attributes or purchasing behavior and, in some cases, may be highly specific or even unique to that viewer. While this enables targeting with fine granularity, it also entails a paradigm shift from buying spots to buying impressions and erodes the experiential knowledge that informs the art of campaign design.
This art is further impacted by the evolution of media devices and habits of viewers. Increasingly, programming is being consumed using DVRs, streaming devices (computers, tablets, televisions that can access data networks, phones, etc.) and other media devices and are not limited to viewing real-time, linear broadcast programming. In some cases, network providers are marketing plans such as TV Anywhere plans that enable and encourage consumption of broadcast television content at the convenience of customers. While this enhances the experience for the consumer, and expands potential advertising opportunities, it also significantly complicates campaign design and execution. Among other things, some of those modalities enable skipping of assets (e.g., fast-forwarding through or tuning/clicking away from assets) and the modalities generally complicate estimating and tracking viewership.